The London exhibition shows the darker side of Henry Moore

London - The famous British sculptor Henry Moore is primarily known for his massive sculptures of abstract, rounded shapes that adorn many squares and parks in Britain and around the world. However, the exhibition opening Wednesday at the London gallery Tate Britain seeks to show a darker and more complex side of his work inspired by war, death, and sex.
    The exhibition includes around 150 works, among which are sculptures made of stone, wood, and bronze, as well as drawings. "This is the first major exhibition of Henry Moore since 1988," said the exhibition curator Chris Stephens to ČTK. The previous exhibition was organized two years after Moore's death.
    This time, Tate Britain aims to largely rehabilitate the famous sculptor and restore his critical recognition. "Even in the last years of his life, he was making extraordinary things, but since the 1960s... his work has been associated with parks and squares; he simply became Henry Moore as we know him," stated Stephens.
    Stephens believes that the sculptor's critical reputation has lost its shine primarily because people do not know his entire body of work. "We have lost awareness of the intellectual and emotional complexity of his early works," he said.
    Therefore, the exhibition seeks to convince visitors that Henry Moore is not just sculptures in front of government buildings. "His works also contain intimacy, complexity, and gloom. He became one of the most important modern sculptors not only due to his brilliant technique and formal invention but also because his art reflected the anxiety and tension of the first half of the 20th century," believes Stephens.
    Moore was born in 1898 as the seventh of eight children in a mining family in Yorkshire, northern England. In 1917, he was drafted to the front, experienced a gas attack in the trenches in France, and was among the 52 soldiers out of 400 who survived the attack. "After the war, he was also active on the left-wing of the political scene, possibly a member of the Communist Party, supporting the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War," said Stephens.
    According to him, the experience of World War I cast a shadow over everything he did afterward. "In the 1920s and 1930s, he expressed more general concerns in his sculptures of human figures. They are troubled and vulnerable figures that also have the potential for violence and are simultaneously charged with sex and eroticism," added Stephens.
    The sculptor was also significantly influenced by psychoanalysis alongside his war experiences. "Moore's art is unimaginable without Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis," emphasized the exhibition curator.
    Visitors at Tate Britain will encounter the main themes in Moore's work - abstract shapes, the recurring theme of mother and child, as well as various variations of reclining figures. Additionally, there are stone masks inspired by primitive art, chilling sculptures of warrior helmets, or a bronze warrior with a shield.
    Moore is best known as a sculptor, but it was his drawings from the 1940s that brought him real fame. "The fact that he became a popular artist from an avant-garde visual artist is due to his drawings from World War II," stated Stephens.
    The exhibition also dedicates a room to gloomy, claustrophobic drawings from shelters in the underground where Londoners hid during the war. In the same spirit, the exhibition features depressing drawings of miners that Moore also created during the war.
    The exhibition at Tate Britain will last almost half a year until August 8.